Photochop Challenge 11 Ford Focus

The best of your Ford Focus artwork.

In the 4/11 issue we provided two Ford Focus photos and challenged you to create something astonishing from them. This is the same format we run every time, where all we ask is you start with our supplied photos, but after that the possibilities are limitless.

With the rally heritage of the Focus, we thought it would provide plenty of inspiration, and we were right! We also gave you the sedan version to manipulate since it has the lines of a small Audi A4 or 3-Series.

With more than 150 entries, we were astonished at the quality and creativity of your work as always. We’d also like to thank Mike Mitsch once again for encouraging his computer graphics students at the Quartz Hill high School to enter the challenge.

Mike must be a great teacher because students Barret Howle, Mario Gonzales, Miles Custer, Bryan Rogers, Jesse Jaramillo, Ryan Procyk, Steven Gimm and Dustin Nabors all made our top 20. However, all the entries can be seen online here at eurotuner.com

Although the Photochop Challenge is just for fun, we reward excellence with a pair of very cool Pro Spec 1.0 competition driving shoes courtesy of Ken Block at DC Shoes (dcshoes.com). They cost around $200 in stores or online, and the FIA-approved Pro Spec comes in Royal blue. It was developed for use by professional drivers such as Ken; co-founder of the premier skate shoe company, Ford WRC driver and star of his own legendary gymkhana videos.
To help us choose the winner, we teamed up with award-winning automotive artist, Jon Sibal. He specializes in concept car project builds for manufacturers and tuners, with his designs being seen at SEMA and various automotive websites (jonsibal.com). As an entrant in previous Photochop Challenges, he knows what it takes to create great artwork so he cast his eye over the entries.

As a result, we chose Samantha Lewis as our favorite and the recipient of the DC shoes. Jon recognized the time it took to apply the livery and, although the front wheel looked slightly skewed, he loved the overall feel.

A very close second place went to Todor Kolev from Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He created a JDM-style Focus with a Honda S2000 front bumper and side skirts modified to fit the Ford. Jon also liked his three-piece Work wheels with stepped lips as well as the reflections in the body. His only criticism was that the black paint meant we couldn’t see all the mods clearly, but it’s an amazing effort.

Finally, he placed Cameron Scott in third for his rally car theme and good integration of the logos. He gave extra points for the new background as well.
In addition, we applaud John Sickling for his clean three-door, widebody conversion with Ferrari wheels, and Brian Kemmy’s realistic upgrades featuring shaved handles, Aston fender vents and aggressive body kit.

Other entries that caught our eye were the dirt-kicking rally cars from Austin Beebe and Matt Wirtz. We also liked the SUV themes from Miles Custer, Barret Howle and Ryan Procyk. Dustin Nabors did a great job with his chrome grille and wheels, we loved Genti Podani’s three-wheeler and Mario Gonzales’ Mustang front-end, while Bryan Rogers was one of the few to attempt the sedan. Finally, Mike Shofner again went low-tech with his hand-drawn Nascar tribute.
We’d like to thank everybody who entered. Look out for Photochop Challenge 12 in the next issue of eurotuner magazine. The photograph for you to work with will be in that issue and online here at eurotuner.com